I headed out to the Old Course at Hidden Lake Golf Club after a week and a half without playing. I teed off early in the morning and the weather was perfect. Unfortunately, I could not say the same about the course conditions. The greens had been aerated and top-dressed recently, creating a terrible putting experience. The putting surface was extremely bumpy and varying levels of sand on each green made the speed unpredictable. Every time I go to Hidden Lake, regardless of the time of year, it seems the greens have been recently punched and covered with sand. What the hell?
Anyway, I started by blowing up for a score of eight on the opening par-4. I drove the ball well right of the fairway, then was stymied by trees all the way to the green. Blowing up on the opening hole is always disappointing; you feel like you're in the hole before the round has even really started. Fortunately, I rattled off a couple of pars and a couple of bogeys over the next four holes to settle down somewhat.
Even though my scores were getting better, I was not striking the ball particularly well. My drives, which had been pretty steady for a while, were completely off. The technique of stepping back at address with my right foot suddenly stopped working. I was flaring the ball short and right of target. My iron play continued to be woeful. To avoid hooking the ball, I went back to my natural takeaway, which is a straight back move, followed by a lift into a step, upright backswing. For most of the year, I had been taking the club away to the inside, then coming back to the ball from the same direction. In theory, this is good; in practice, it made me hook the ball with alarming consistency.
The only good part of my game was pitching, chipping and putting. Through the remainder of the front nine, the short game allowed me to salvage some bogeys, even though I was struggling to reach greens. At the turn, I had just 15 putts, thanks to chips and pitch shots that left me close to the hole. Considering how badly I was playing overall, I was lucky to be shooting 48 heading to the back nine.
Holes #10 through #15 were played much like the earlier holes of the round. My drives continued to miss right, except for a beauty down the pipe on hole #13. My irons were still pathetic, including some pulls and slight hooks. Worst of all, I hit a couple of shanks that seemed to defy the laws of physics. Nevertheless, I pitched and putt the ball well, salvaging quite a few bogeys.
The real problems came with three holes to play. On hole #16, I once again flared my drive to the right side. That side of the hole features a steep embankment, with not a flat stance in sight. This made it very difficult to reach the green. After two attempted approaches, I was in a bunker fronting the putting surface. My bunker play has been terrible for a few years now and I know it, which only seems to further impair my ability to hit sand shots. My first attempt was extremely fat. My second attempt was caught thin, sending the ball over the green and out of bounds. After a penalty stroke and drop, my third attempt finally landed safely on the green. Two putts gave me a score of nine on the hole.
As poorly as I had been playing, before that hole I was on pace for a round in the mid nineties. Suddenly, the dreaded century mark was a distinct possibility. I let out a few expletives in an attempt to rid myself of the disgust that I was feeling. It didn't work. On hole #17, I popped my drive straight up, failing to reach the fairway. An ensuing 6-iron was pulled left under a tree. Next, I hit a shocking shank that bounded across the fairway and through a bunker, coming to rest in some knee-high fescue. Are you kidding me? I hacked it out, but crossed entirely over the fairway, once again under some trees. A low punch bounded off the back of the green. After a chip and two putts, I recorded an eight on this par-4 hole. Needless to say, the expletives continued.
I needed a birdie on hole #18, a 180-yard par-3, in order to break 100. Instead, I made bogey and walked away with a gag-inducing score of 101. One of the reasons I play golf is to generate positive feelings that carry over into other parts of life. When the only feelings generated by the game are negative, this approach backfires completely and utterly – one ends up creating exactly the opposite effect than desired.
Score: 101
Putts: 32
Fairways: 2
Greens: 2
Penalties: 3
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